1902.] POULTRY AS AN ADJUNCT OF THE FARM. 225 



outhouses which, with a little ingenuity, will house many 

 times the number now carried. If there were not, would not 

 the value of the live stock to be carried in them justify con- 

 siderable outlay of capital? If thirty chickens, a number 

 sufificiently large to be kept together, are worth thirty dollars, 

 it is probable that they will yield thirty dollars through the 

 year. This sum is ten per cent, of three hundred. If any 

 considerable share of this is devoted to buildings, the re- 

 turns will be high and go far toward ensuring health of the 

 flock. Much more can be spared than is usually the case. 

 On the other hand, some quite large poultry plants seem to 

 be handicapped in the beginning by a too excessive expendi- 

 ture for buildings. 



Permanent houses, long apartment coops which open into 

 prisonlike runs, seem to be the style most generally adopted, 

 but seem out of place on the farm. Portable colony houses 

 wdiich can be drawn afield in summer and into some protected 

 sunny place in winter seem the better. They place the fowds 

 nearer the food, remove them from contaminated ground, 

 and allow free range. This system is used with great suc- 

 cess in eastern Rhode Island. A rotation of the feeding 

 grounds is as necessary for chickens as a rotation of crops 

 for most successful production. Allowing the chickens to 

 run in the cornfield or in nearby pastures in summer carries 

 them cheaply through with but little additional feeding, with- 

 out harm to the crops. Furthermore, protection from the 

 sun and hawks is gained. 



For general farm purposes but one breed of hens should 

 be kept and no wire fences except that around the garden 

 and small chicken department. The orchard, the hedge row, 

 and the brush lot are fine places for chickens, and should be 

 utilized. The barnyard should harbor the best and sufificient 

 to keep down all the flies that would otherwise hatch from 

 the manure piles. 



Concerning methods of feeding them, little need be said 

 here. A regular supply of any of the variety of grains that 

 may be produced on the farm with the addition of meat scraps, 

 cut clover, and green bone will mature the chicks in fall and 

 winter and make the hens lay. Mashes of mixed grains, 

 together with an alternation of grain feedings, will prove 

 more than sufftcient when insects are plenty. On most 



Agr. — 15 



